One by one the events unfold while the battle for Temelin is waged. The Czech government took a decision to build the third and the fourth power generating units of the nuclear energy plant in the vicinity of Temelin (24 km from Czech Budejovice). The reactors are Soviet VVER-1000 type, the price is $15 million. The decision sparked the emotions becoming kind of a political scandal. The MIR.1200 Consortium is an alliance of Czech Skoda JS and Russian Gidropress and Atomstroyexport, the subsidiaries of Russian firm Rosatom. Another bidder in the tender beside the Czech-Russian consortium is the US-Japanese company Westinghouse…

Bulgaria is facing the wave of the largest mass protests in the last 16 years provoked by price hikes. So the resignation of Boyko Borisov government has been expected. It was this very government and big time players from Washington who made the events unfold this way… Perhaps Bulgaria doesn’t even realize it has become a country with limited sovereignty as a result of the United Sates diplomatic pressure…

The conflict between Beijing and Hanoi over the energy reserves in the South China Sea, which had been simmering for a couple of months, entered a new phase when India's ONGC announced going ahead with the exploratory drilling on the Vietnamese shelf regardless of the threats voiced by China. The South China Sea shelf supposedly holds 30 billion tons of crude plus 16 trillion cu m of natural gas… It is clear that, on top of the conflict with Vietnam, China is headed for serious polemics with Taiwan, Malaysia, Brunei, and the Philippines which similarly can cite convincing foundations for claims to the disputed shelf…

Once out of the building docks, every one of a fleet of 25 Q-Max huge LNG-carriers commissioned by Qatar will enable the transit of 150 million cu m of natural gas per trip, giving a boost to the country's LNG expansion. No doubt, since Qatar's ambitions are backed by the US Exxon Mobil, the capacities will serve to erode Russia's status of the biggest natural gas supplier to Europe. There is a feeling that the Washington neocons who, at best, see Russia as a US vassal in a coming confrontation with China, hope to use the capabilities to coerce Russia into a complete refusal from any independent foreign policies…

Iran’s state-run Press TV announced on February 15 that in response to the EU sanctions Tehran was suspending oil deliveries to France, Italy, Spain, Greece, Portugal and the Netherlands. On the same day Iran`s oil ministry denied the report… The opposing sides are testing each other`s ability to demonstrate a strong political will. Actually, what we see now is a virtual fight but just a single wrong gesture can turn it into a real one…

The program manifesto US President Barack Obama voiced in the Australian parliament on November 17 and his statements on January 5 make it clear for everyone that Washington has outlined the new strategy of its foreign policy… The change of priorities predicts serious international shifts. It predicts the completion of the military operations against Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan and Pakistan, which gave no result, a partial retreat from Iraq and reorientation on new external enemies both real and imaginary ones. The US is keeping a bead on the Celestial Empire…

At first glance, OPEC, the oil-exporting countries' alliance established in 1960 by Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela, must be reliving the good old days with spectacular oil prices reinstated and its end-of-the-year gain as projected by the IEA inching towards a trillion dollar mark. The figure, however, reflects only the brighter part of OPEC's present-day picture, the downside being that its formerly robust internal consensus is being washed away by a tide of financial egotisms and national rivalries…

Speaking at the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London recently, Turkey’s President Abdullah Gül said that the role of the West in global politics was gradually diminishing, and called for the creation of the new world order based on harmonious relations between the US and other world powers, including the EU and the BRICS nations. The 'reset' of Ankara – Moscow relations turned to be one of the key issues in the 'No problems with neighbors' diplomacy…

The 'liberation' of Libya, which is one of Europe`s main energy suppliers, is yet far from completion. The Libyan leader Gaddafi has proved his strength and does not seem to be ready to face the Hussein`s fate. Thus the US plans for the region`s territorial division are failing. Gaddafi`s resistance has upset the plans of global leaders who now seem more inclined to separate Libya from its eastern territories hit by tribal protests and deprived of oil and gas and turn them into a breakaway territory like Kosovo…